It's no deal - at least for the time being

Houston -- One by one, they stepped off the bus and into their hotel. Baron Davis, Derek Fisher, Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Mickael Pietrus ... all the Warriors were here and accounted for Thursday.

Which meant, of course, that the league's trade deadline passed without any moves from Golden State. And for better or worse, the Warriors who posted a 24-29 record through 53 games will be the same Warriors to finish the final 29.

"We looked at all (the trade scenarios) over not just today, the last several months, and nothing got done," Warriors vice president Chris Mullin said. "There's things going on all the time that you talk about. And they come and go, and you move on."

So the Warriors press forward, knowing that in doing nothing, Mullin effectively did two things: He put the burden on his current players to become a playoff-worthy team by season's end, and he set the stage for what will almost assuredly be a busy offseason.

That's when "more opportunities" will become available. More free agents on the market, including Ben Wallace and Al Harrington. More flexibility to move Murphy or Jason Richardson without base-year compensation, and more takers for Dunleavy who goes from poison pill to base year after July 1.

More chances, really, for Mullin to fix what he finally admitted Thursday was a flawed Warriors roster.

"Anything that we feel needed to be addressed will be addressed later," Mullin said, and when pressed if that meant he had concrete things to address, "Of course, no question," he added.

Golden State is still missing a true low-post player and, at the moment, is precariously thin at point guard with Davis sidelined indefinitely by a sprained ankle.

Yet warts and all, Mullin still believes the Warriors can sneak into the postseason as presently constructed -- with or without a healthy Davis.

"We expect Baron to get healthy," he said. "And I think we've also exhibited depth to compete when we're down, whoever that might be. In fact, we've clearly exhibited (that depth)."

The Warriors are 2-3 in games that Davis has sat out and have won two others in which he has played limited minutes. Coach Mike Montgomery is preparing his team as though Davis will not be available anytime soon, but he refused to speculate on how Davis' absence would impact Golden State's postseason hopes.

"We're not as preoccupied with the playoffs as all you people are," he said. "We're not sitting here stewing it up about what the next game means in this global deal. We're trying to be as good a basketball team as we can.

"Fisher's our point, Mike's our backup, and that's who we have. When Baron comes back, theoretically, we'll be better and we'll try to go from there."

"We need to play, I don't want to say with a sense of urgency (but) we need to be able to execute and finish games," Mullin added. "We put ourselves in position to win, and hopefully, we learn from those missed opportunities and change those outcomes."

Mullin said it was up to the players as well as the coaching staff to reverse Golden State's late-game, late-period rough spots. And his non-moves this trade season seem more like a plea for better play than a vote of confidence in his players.

"If you're talking about having a winning atmosphere, it's got to fall on everybody," he said. "The responsibility ... not so much the blame, but the responsibility."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...SPG3KHE6DM1.DTL

 

"Golden State is still missing a true low-post player and, at the moment, is precariously thin at point guard with Davis sidelined indefinitely by a sprained ankle."

The GSW aren't missing a low post player. They got Ike and AB if they would only feed them and give them some room to maneuver. I blame 1) Monty for not calling plays for them 2) Baron and other PGs for not passing to them.

I rather have a go to guy like Paul Pierce on the team (course, I wouldn't turn down KG if he could be had without giving up the team).

I suppose one could call Foyle a low post player, but one needs to catch the ball on a regular basis .

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The GSW aren't missing a low post player. They got Ike and AB if they would only feed them and give them some room to maneuver. I blame 1) Monty for not calling plays for them 2) Baron and other PGs for not passing to them</div>

Yes and no. Until the last 4 or 5 games AB couldn't last 2 minutes without fouling 2 times. Plus, he could quite possibly have the worst free throw I've seen since Dudley was shotputting the ball at the hoop. Ike has proved that he struggles forcing the ball up lately too. He's young, and it's tough to shoulder a ton of responsibility on kids that still are learning the offense and physically aren't there yet.
In short (too late) neither guy can be counted on to consistently be there. Baron even ripped Ike for not getting open quick enough, so it's not that the plays aren't there. They just can't execute

 

AB is still very raw and Ike is still a rookie, of course they're not going to feed them the ball as much.

 

I am against age profiling on a team, mostly amongst the players. If a player is on the court and is on your team, make him a threat and help each other out. That's how you do it, that's how you play on a team. No age profiling necessary.

This is kind of the stuff that goes on for bad high school teams. There will be a guy who is good as an underclassman, but the upperclassman players can hurt his opportunities to produce and sometimes they do, because they(and their parents, I'd guess) wouldn't want some freshmen or sophmore to take playing time from them, or I guess even some shots. For good programs the coach can change how detrimental it would be to the team...Make the team play as a team, to get eachother their proper chances and shots.

The hoop doesn't check your ID, when you put up a shot, well that's how it was the last time I checked.

For the Warriors, they need to get the ball inside more. It has to be one of their strategies, and if Biedrins(the tenth youngest player in the league) or Diogu(a rookie) is in good position near the basket, then get him the ball.

And yes, it would be nice to see the Warriors bring in a good post player. But which one is worth Jason Richardson? I know I'd like Elton Brand, Chris Bosh, and Jermaine O'Neal. But outside of those players who else would you give up Jason for, besides the obvious like Tim Duncan, Amare, and KG?

A Jason Richardson for a big man would have to be a BIG deal. Maybe the Warriors look to use a first round pick or two, along with Murphy to bring some other PF that in someway may fit the team better. I don't know.

But I can't remember where I just recently read this, but I have to agree with it, that a trio of Jason/Baron/Troy ought to be a very dynamic trio. Somehow it's just not working with the team and everything. So I kind of lean more negative toward the coaching staff. But also I have been thinking that the Baron/Jason back court is just very weak defensively and recently with getting ball movement set in this team. So maybe reconstructing this trio could be a decision.

And however the Warriors finish the season, I think this next offseason is giong to be very very very interesting for the Warriors. We have two first round draft picks, some future cap problems(possibly/most likely), unhappy people with the coaching, and you never know anything with the ownership. And with talks about KG being gone this offseason from Minnesota, and the recent Iverson talks to Denver that almost happened, and Paul Pierce of course. This coming summer is going to be very active in Warrior Land I believe...

 

Thanks bayareafan85 for posting the article.

Pretty much no comment on the article. If Mullin couldn't see he had a flawed roster in terms of personnel to begin with, I don't know what he was thinking when he was out overpaying all these ineffective starters. Dfish is not a point guard, Foyle is not a starting center, Dunleavy is... I don't know what he is, but its not very good most of the time.

To come out and now say it's a flawed team in terms of personnel is... frustrating. Especially after so many knowledgeable W's fans (I don't claim to be one) pointed out the mistakes that Mullin was making early on and predicted how this might affect the Warriors right now. What we overestimated was how good this roster can be with just one all-star player added to the point guard position and such a limited style of attack. It's pretty obvious big men are more valuable to a team than the smaller guys, and its that lack of big men depth that is having an effect on our scoring, passing, our defense, and our ability to get rebounds on both sides of the floor. But then again, maybe there wasn't any big man difference maker available to us anyway. I mean we're lucky to have Murphy who is 16/10 consistently, even though we have to put up with his flaws on defense and other things he doesn't do as a big man should. I don't know for sure and I don't want to assume we could have been better had certain moves not gone through. After all, who thought Jamison to Nick Van Exel to Dale Davis would turn into Baron Davis.

All I know is, I just wish the center talent and the teamwork was better. We can't even be a good perimeter team unless we replicate what the Sonics do as a team to free the open jumper and get the rebounds. We could play our own style of ball and not copy other teams, but we'd have to play almost perfectly because our low % of shots, the low number of fast ballhandlers, the little activity moving and receiving passes, the low big man fundamentals, poor guard free throw shooting and our porous defense leaves little room for error. It's why when a role player like Mike Dunleavy Jr. or Adonal Foyle are playing well and the Warriors win the game, they attract the most attention when we lose and they aren't playing well. The whole team has got to be the difference makers because we have very few that can make a huge impact the entire game and on both sides of the floor every single night. If we can't consistently produce on the offensive end and we can't slow down the other team on the defensive end, well... it just makes it too close of a game every night and sometimes we just don't win from the one or two points that could have been from an easily made free throw or an easily caught pass and layup.

PS: Thanks Kwan, Clif and Wtwalker for those posts a year and half ago that were dead on with our salary situation. I don't think many fans understand the money side of basketball or the CBA as much as you guys do. So I guess we were prepared in advance to expect this sort of thing where we would find it impossible to make moves if Plan A wasn't working. I mean 5 year deals worth quite a lot. It isn't something that's easy to get rid of and you have to stick with it as part of the rotation. Now, if they were 2-3 year deals maybe that wouldn't be so bad, but its double. These guys are paid like they are the future of the franchise or something.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Clif25:</div><div class="quote_post">The hoop doesn't check your ID, when you put up a shot, well that's how it was the last time I checked.</div>

Hey, I like that C2.